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It appeared that Rabbi Yitzchok Gurevitz’s faith in the accuracy of the weather forecast was rewarded last evening. Skies cleared just before the public lighting of a large Hanukah menorah at 6:30 pm on a grassy area beside Chestnut Hill Plaza at the bottom Germantown Avenue above Cresheim Drive.

Watch video here.

Twenty some people such as Norm and Leah Schwartz of Mount Airy who brought their granddaughter, braved the near freezing temperatures and driving winds which had blown out the afternoon’s rain and sleet, to celebrate the first night of Hanukah. As Gurevitz, leader of  Chabad-Lubavitch of Northwest Philadelphia, lit an oil wick candle, they sang prayers to mark the beginning of the eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the successful revolt of the Jews against the Syrian king Antiochus in 165 BCE in Judea and the rededication of the Temple that had been desecrated at his orders.

Hanukah is a special holiday, Gurevitz explained, because Jews are called upon to observe it not just in the home but outside with the community at large. (In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court got involved in the national Chabad movement practice of lighting menorahs in public places made controversial by the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state, when it allowed a public display in Fountain Square, Cincinnati)

Referring to the case, Gurevitz emphasized the menorah as a symbol of freedom for all people and interprets the freedom message at a personal level-  “the freedom to be the best that we can be, the freedom to be the most we can be.”

At the conclusion of the ceremony, a celebrant placed a large boom box atop his car parked in the adjoining driveway and broadcast festive Chanukah music as those gathered huddled against the cold, schmoozed, and enjoyed latkes (traditional potato pancakes) with hot cider.

For the next week, one additional electric candle will be lit every day in reenactment of the Chanukah story that oil found in the reclaimed Temple, sufficient for only one day, miraculously lasted eight days.  Electric current is coming courtesy of Yu Hsiang Garden restaurant next door.

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Growing up, Devon Ingold performed in more than forty plays and productions but has migrated behind the scenes and just started managing the box office at the Allens Lane Theater. Just graduated from Susquehanna University with a major in art history, the Altoona native hopes to find work as a museum educator. Watch video here.

Twenty five percent of Philadelphians live below the poverty level. This somber statistic was delivered last night to hundreds of diners, along with delicious soups and breads donated by dozens of restaurants and caterers, at the Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network’s 15^th annual “Empty Bowl Dinner”  held at the Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Through a large network of religious congregations and volunteers, the Network (“NPIHN”) provides emergency and transitional housing and support services to families facing homelessness, like the Baez family, now “alumni”, who recounted their continuing personal struggle to support themselves and stay together as a family.

Watch video here.

Scott Blunk employs a moldboard plow to break new ground at the Henry Got Crops Farm in Roxborough, Philadelphia. Blunk, who worked for the John Deere company at one time, explains that this plow is based on an early Deere design and was known as “self cleaning” because it cuts out slices of turf  and then dumps them  upside down off of the share  or blade. (See Wikipedia for an expanded technical explanation) The newly plowed area, part of the CSA farm’s expansion, will get planted this fall with a cover crop to add nitrogen and nutrients before eventually coming into production the year after next.  IS THERE A PLAN FOR WHAT’S GOING IN HERE? “No. I’d like to plant marijuana. Maybe that’ll be approved by the spring of 2015, whadda you think?” Watch video here.

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Seventy six year old Mr. Bell, whose granddaughter is often at his home in Mount Airy, didn’t think his granddaughter would mind if he borrowed her cap with the big red letters shouting “LOVE” on his walk to the doctor’s office in Wyndmoor. He says he loves people, always wears a smile no matter what his problems and being from North Carolina, is “just like that.”  Outfitted in full fatigues, Bell, now retired, cheerily related his long work history since serving in the army when he was eighteen as an automotive mechanic at a base near Frankfurt, Germany.

Watch video interview here.